‘We ought to get him roused if we can,’ Gordon said. ‘He’ll slip away if we don’t keep him awake.’

Together they struggled with the dead weight of the unconscious airman, trying to get him into a sitting position in the prow of the boat.

The airman’s face was gaunt and pale, his eyes closed.

‘I’ve got some rum stowed in that locker,’ Kate said. ‘Let’s try that.’

She held the neck of the bottle to the airman’s blue lips and gently tried to ease some of the reviving liquid into his mouth.

‘He’s a squadron leader,’ Gordon said, suddenly. ‘Wonder where the rest of his chaps are?’

‘Now don’t you start, Gordon!’ Kate said, but she was smiling, teasing the friendly man who had so generously given up his own chance of immediate rescue to stay to help her and Danny.

Gordon’s teeth shone white out of his oil-streaked face. ‘No – I’m not like our friend back there.’ He jerked his head back towards the ship they had just left. ‘The RAF is here all right – I know that – but they’ve a hell of an area to cover and they won’t have a lot of flying time from a fuel point of view when they do get here.’

‘Talking about fuel . . .’ Kate looked around at the cans Danny had brought. There was only one remaining tin. She glanced at Gordon. ‘You go aboard with him the next trip back to a ship,’ she said firmly, nodding towards the airman.

Gordon gave her a mock salute. ‘Yes, Ma’am.’

While Danny steered the boat back towards the ship that had been hit, Kate chafed the airman’s hands, though her own were now as cold as his. Then she rubbed his back again. ‘Come on, feller, do wake up,’ she murmured as his head lolled against her breast. She wrapped her arms around him again, rocking him as she might a child.

Above the airman’s unconscious form, she met Danny’s glance as he sat with his hand on the tiller. There was a fleeting look of pain in his eyes. Intuitively, she knew that he had felt a sudden stab of jealousy seeing her with her arms around another man. It was the first time, but it might not be the last, and she could see his inner struggle to come to terms with it. She smiled at Danny, understanding and commiserating. For a brief moment amidst all the chaos, they gazed at each other, and then he gave her a small smile and lifted his shoulders fractionally in a tiny shrug of helpless, reluctant acceptance. Even now, she thought, after all this time, for Danny as well as for her, the pain was never very far away.